VoiceOver support and feedback

Beta Development feedback request
1

Hello everyone!

As you may know, the VoiceOver support we had in version 1 is broken in the current version of Bear.

I’m starting to integrate it again and will use this thread to update you on the development.

Meanwhile, do you have some examples of Apps in the Apple ecosystem that excellently implement VoiceOver? Apps that left you surprised about how good the VoiceOver support was. Please also describe shortly why that support was better than the other Apps.

We are very sorry for the lack of VoiceOver support in Bear 2.0, and I will ensure that it will be integrated as soon as possible.

2

The website AppleVis had an article about building websites for visually handicapped persons:
AppleVis

and also a revieuw on Bear1:
AppleVis Bear1

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3

Hey @PeterT!

Thank you so much for the information.

I was behind the VoiceOver implementation on Bear 1, and I’ve been updating my knowledge with all the documentation available from Apple since then.

Because the information you can find is usually very generic and doesn’t consider actual use cases, I was very curious about everything outside the educational field—so real cases of something great that other fellow developers implemented.

Thank you again!

:wave:

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4

I am a sighted user, but do know how to test for accessibility (and have lots of blind friends). The developers that consistently comes to the top of the list for surprising accessibility are those at Rogue Amoeba, makers of apps like Audio Hijack.

The reason it’s surprising that it’s accessible is that the interface is VERY visual. As a sighted user you drag blocks around and watch for audio flow lines to change, combining or single lines. They built Audio Hijack (and all of their current apps) from the ground up to be accessible. I’ve taught 3 blind people to use Audio Hijack in about an hour each and they all took off with it.

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5

OmniFocus has an extensive VoiceOver / voice control support.

The announcement on Omni blog:

More details on technical implementation:

https://omni-automation.com/voice-control/

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6

Hey @podfeet and @Cris!

Thank you so much for the information. I will check the software from both the teams under the VoiceOver lens.

I’m very familiar with Audio Hijack and have used it in various occasions. Love it. Knowing that it is also very accessible is an awesome news.

Will keep you updated here as soon as there are developments for Bear.

:wave:

2 Likes
7

Another app that has been lauded for its accessibility is Mona for Mastodon. I haven’t messed around with it in VO myself but it’s one of the big selling features of the app.

8

Sonos is also lauded for the accessibility of the Sonos app. There are two blind support members working for Sonos as well.

9

Hi Nerolapis,
How are things going with adding VoiceOver support in Bear? I still cannot use Bear unfortunately….

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10

@nerolapis
What is happening with VoicOver support in Bear?

11

Hello everybody!

Unfortunately, the effort is more than what I had planned beforehand.

While implementing the VoiceOver in the new version of the Editor, we discovered limitations on Apple’s technical side. After speaking with Apple’s representatives, we discovered that achieving the results we wanted was impossible.

So we changed our goals and are trying to get the best experience possible working with what we can do.

Our progress is not as rapid as we’d like, but we are steadily moving forward. I am optimistic that we will have some updates for you soon.

Thank you for your patience!

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